My review of 3 Chicks Review Comics #33

*Disclaimer: The following podcast review should not be taken (100%) seriously because I am (mostly but not completely) full of shit.*

So Sue and Kelly raved about Francisco Francavilla's art in Detective Comics #874. Which is awesome, because he's great. But the thing that confuses me is: how come I hear everyone raving about his Detective Comics art but I barely hear anyone rave about his Black Panther work? If you know me, you already know I'm quite partial to Black Panther, so I've got a very strong bias in posing this question. BUT I GOTTA KNOW!! Did no one read Black Panther? Or was his art way different on Batman and people just liked it more?

And Maddy picked a Brian Q Miller Batgirl issue... DAMN people who liked that series LOVED that series. I didn't read it, but all of the love for it is finally making me curious.

I didn't read Wolverine and Jubilee. I'd intended to read it, mostly based upon the 3 Chicks review of the first issue. But I went to my comic shop and they were sold out. And then I forgot to ask them to reorder it for me. And then I forgot about it entirely :(

"He loves to do female characters." hehehehehehe *snicker*

Something that grinds my gears -- which is in no way unique to you three -- is that comic book readers almost always seem to say the "best" webcomics are ones done by published and/or established comic book creators. I'm specifically saying the phrase comic book creators on purpose -- I talking about people who come from comic book/graphic novels backgrounds or have print recognition, careers, etc. That's not to say their webcomics aren't good -- they are. And I know that my complaint here is really foolish and self-serving. But it grinds my gears nonetheless! A good comparison would be if people who primarily read prose always said the "best" comic books were ones written by people who have recognition as novel writers, ya feel me?

OMG, Kelly, I had no idea that the background in that Daredevil cover was all words until you said something! I've been seeing it posted around the web as a thumbnail, and I was like "what's the big deal? the composition is okay, I guess... but nothing mind-blowing..." BUT THE WORDS/SOUNDS THING IS AWESOME! So I get it now.

I wasn't loyally reading any DC books before the relaunch. The most recent stuff I can remember picking up? I read the Aquawar issues of Brightest Day (which wasn't much of a war, BTW), and they were okay. I've read two issues of the New 52. Aquaman wasn't for me, and The Ray -- while decent -- hasn't hooked me yet. The other books? I flipped thru a few things but I didn't get into what I saw. However, I did buy the Batman Inc. Leviathan Strikes one-shot because 1. it had a ton of pages, 2. it had an awesome cover, and 3. the first story with Batgirl in the boarding school was bonkers good! So it turns out that my favorite DC comic published in the New 52 era happens to be a holdover from before the reboot.

I agree that DC missed a huge opportunity with its relaunch, but I don't see their PR as much of a flub. I mean, comic book marketing is rarely in step with the audience. I feel like it's been that way for a long time now. However, they really missed an opportunity with the content, in my opinion. I think they could've pushed the envelope a lot more. Instead, they just "Ultimitized" their line.

Kelly, what about Rogue being the lead in X-Men: Legacy? Doesn't that count as a female led book? And like I mentioned in the comments on the last podcast, Misty Knight is still the lead in Villains for Hire, despite the fact that the ongoing Heroes for Hire was cancelled. And aren't Storm and Jubilee the new lead characters in the adjectiveless X-Men series? I don't read that one, so I don't know. But that's my perception from the covers I see.

I have an idea, and please don't take this as a criticism, because it's not... but here's the notion: what if you did an entire non-complaining episode? The reason I say it is two-fold. 1. I'd love to listen to the three (or two, if I must) of you struggle to fight back ranting about things that piss you off, and 2. You always make incredible arguments for your positions, but you say the same ones every episode! And with good reason -- I mean, I'm a HUGE supporter of your agenda, and things obviously need to change. But what would you say if you couldn't talk about the opportunities DC's missing? What if you couldn't complain about what Marvel's doing wrong? I know you've tried that before to a degree. But I'm talking an entire episode with not one complaint! Even looking for positive stuff within the larger negative. What would that be like?

Wet Moon 6 = out in October 2012.

And finally... apparently this person hates my extended version of the 3 Chicks theme. Frankly, I take "made in 1981" as a compliment!

RATING: 5 out of 7, for being entertaining and insightful but losing me at some points and not having many lol moments.

2 comments:

I didn't feel this was our best effort. I think we got tired partway through. Also the nature of picking so many categories blunted much interesting discussion of any one thing that wasn't so surface.

I agree with you that we complain about the same things and that can be frustrating, but I disagree that we were wrong not to complain about said things in this episode in particular since it was a best/worst of 2011 cast and thus a bit of a summary. I'd be down for a "POSITIVE CAST!" I'll ask Sue. Maybe we can do one when Maddy comes back for "spring" break.

Lastly, I don't consider X-Men Legacy a "female led title" largely due to the fact that it's simply not called ROGUE. And thus the lead can (and has) changed at any time. It's true that in Carey's hands Rogue was most often the absolute lead, but it's still a large ensemble cast, and it's not named after her so that can change at any time. I also point you to my recent more detailed arguments on SHNH (especially the comments) about why a titled named after a character and how that builds that character is important to the development and growth.

FYI, I'm doing these reviews because I want podcasters to know how much I get out of their episodes... so much so that leaving blog comments just doesn't seem to cut it anymore. And your episodes always leave me with a lot to say!!!

Anyway, I'm a little tripped up by your wording regarding the complaining stuff, so just to clarify where I'm coming from -- I think you were RIGHT to complain in this episode. I'm just speculating on what it would be like to hear a positive episode. I thought this was a solid best/worst recap show.

You have a really good point about titles where the woman's name isn't in there. It's like that Storm mini series X-Men: World's Apart. WTF? If should have been Storm: World's Apart. But they chickened out and thought that slapping X-Men on it would make it sell better.

And I did read today's SHNH... well, most of it. Some of it I skimmed, so obviously I need to go back and reread :)